Eric Johnson

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AllThingsD Week In Review: AppSung 2, Internet Funneling and Inside Microsoft’s CEO Search

In case you missed anything, here’s a quick roundup of some of the news that powered AllThingsD this week:

  1. This week, Apple and Samsung were back in black … suits, for a partial retrial of last year’s patent infringement lawsuit. This time, though, the only thing that mattered this week was money, and how much of last year’s $1 billion verdict was improperly calculated. Apple said Samsung should pay $379 million in addition to an undisputed $640 million, while Samsung argued that $52 million was plenty. Ultimately, the jury decided Samsung owed $290 million for its patent infringement adding up to a total of $929.83 million between the two trials. The battle between the two companies, however, is far from over.
  2. Internet research firm Renesys disclosed this week that earlier this year, an unknown party targeted Internet carriers in major cities worldwide and performed what’s called a “Man-In-The-Middle attack,” funneling Internet traffic bound for those cities through Belarus and Iceland. Arik Hesseldahl explained the reported attack in detail here.
  3. Ding! Southwest Airlines is upping the ante in the electronics-on-planes game, tapping its satellite internet infrastructure to offer gate-to-gate Wi-Fi Internet.
  4. The ever-falling cost and size of computing power caused Intel to get beaten at its own game, chairman Andy Bryant said on Thursday. Bryant said the company “lost [its] way” but that there’s still reason to be hopeful looking forward.
  5. Who will take over the reins at Microsoft once its current CEO Steve Ballmer departs? High-ranking insiders say it might be Ford CEO Alan Mulally, to be a “caretaker” of the job while training others who might eventually take his place. There’s still time, though, for a dark horse to emerge.
  6. Sony’s last gaming console, the PlayStation 3, was sold at a loss, but its new PlayStation 4 is being built for $381, or $18 under its retail price, according to research firm IHS. Here are the details from IHS’ teardown.
  7. Apple is trying to acquire 3-D sensing company PrimeSense, but as of Sunday, talks were “close” but not yet done. Sources said its reported valuation of $345 million would would not represent a huge win for investors. (Update: Oh look — sold!)
  8. Amazon is in the process of creating its own brand for supermarket goods, according to several job listings the company has posted over the last few months. Private-label brands can help retailers cut margins and keep prices low.
  9. At long last, here’s the Google Wallet debit card. It’s not as crazy as you might expect, though; Google is only targeting the physical card to a subset of existing users of its digital Wallet service.
  10. The iPhone 5s still has that new-phone smell, but analysts say the company’s next flagship smartphone may cost at least $50 more.

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There’s a lot of attention and PR around Marissa, but their product lineup just kind of blows.

— Om Malik on Bloomberg TV, talking about Yahoo, the September issue of Vogue Magazine, and our overdependence on Google